Trailer Trashin’: Generic but entertaining, thy name is Alex Cross

As we battle the summer heat, the air-conditioned interiors of our local movie theaters are a welcome sanctuary, where the new trailers give us things to look forward to besides cooler weather. For your reading pleasure this week, Trailer Trashin’ takes a look at the first trailer for this fall’s upcoming crime thriller Alex Cross.

Premise: Dr. Alex Cross (Tyler Perry) meets his match when he goes against Michael “The Butcher” Sullivan (Matthew Fox). As Cross investigates the hitman’s gruesome and sadistic murders, Sullivan decides to send him a deadly message by killing Cross’ wife. Enraged, Cross vows to hunt down the killer. However, Sullivan is a mastermind and continues to evade Cross while pushing him to an ethical breaking point as a cop and father. As Cross closes in on the killer, he discovers evidence that points to the unimaginable – a revelation that could change everything.

My take: Dr. Alex Cross, the protagonist of a long-running series of books by James Patterson, is no stranger to movie screens. He was previously portrayed by Morgan Freeman in Kiss the Girls (1997) and Along Came a Spider (2001). And with recognizable names and brands being the big thing in Hollywood these days, it was probably inevitable that we would see a new cinematic incarnation of the character. Now the first trailer for Alex Cross has arrived, and while it looks pretty good, there’s nothing that’s put it onto my “must see” list.

In terms of the cast, obviously the main focus here is on Tyler Perry as the eponymous hero, police detective/forensic psychologist Dr. Alex Cross. Perry fits in scenes where Cross is with his wife and when he’s investigating crime scenes, but he just seems a bit out of place in the action scenes later on (I’ll go into more detail on this later). We get a few looks at Rachel Nichols as Monica Ashe, but not enough to discern much about her character or how much of a role she’ll have. For me, the person who stood out most here is Matthew Fox as Michael “The Butcher” Sullivan. Fox is almost unrecognizable compared to how he looked as Jack Shephard on Lost, and after playing a famous TV hero for six years, he seems to be really relishing the chance to play such a straight-up evil character. Carmen Ejogo seems likable and charming as Maria Cross, Alex’s ill-fated wife, which is important, since her death has to be the impetus for Cross’ battle with Sullivan. I was also surprised to see Stephanie Jacobsen – who geeks like me will recognize from Battlestar Galactica: Razor (2007) and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – as Fan Yau, the woman Sullivan tortures and murders. Not appearing here are Jean Reno as Leon Mercier, Giancarlo Esposito as Daramus Holiday, and John C. McGinley as Richard Brookwell, so I’ll just have to hope they show up in the next trailer.

Admittedly, director Rob Cohen does not have what you’d call an illustrious filmography. While I know that The Fast and the Furious (2001) has fans, I don’t think there are too many people who will defend xXx (2002), Stealth (2005), or The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) as great cinematic works. But on the other hand, he did direct Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993) and Dragonheart (1996), which are definitely marks in his favor.

I also have to say I quite like the look of the movie, in terms of the cinematography and production design. There’s a nice variety in the lighting set-ups we see here; some shots are flooded in lights, while others are full of shadows. Location shooting for the film was done in Cleveland and Detroit, and it looks like Cohen and his cinematographer Ricardo Della Rosa captured some impressive-looking street footage. And I like the rundown, grungy look of some of the interiors – not sure which are sets and which are real locations – especially the crumbling theater/stadium we see Cross and Sullivan fighting in toward the end of the trailer.

As I mentioned before, the main issue I have here is with Tyler Perry playing Alex Cross. There’s no two ways about it, I just don’t buy Perry as any kind of an action hero. English actor Idris Elba – best known as Russell “Stringer” Bell on The Wire and Heimdall in Thor (2011) – was originally cast as Alex Cross, and I think he would have been perfect. Elba is an actor who is both smart enough to convincingly play a police detective/forensic psychologist and enough of a physical presence to be believable in the action scenes. Perry, on the other hand, looks more like an accountant or a schoolteacher. I can believe him as a detective/psychologist, but not as someone who could hold his own in a fight against an ex-soldier. But who knows, maybe I’m being unfair and he’ll end up surprising us. And I’m sorry, but the tagline “Don’t Ever Cross Alex Cross” is just ridiculous.

But my quibbles aside, this still looks like it could be a solid, entertaining little thriller. Geeks like me can sometimes forget that not everyone wants to see sci-fi films and comic book movies, and those people deserve their popcorn movies, too. It may not be my cup of tea, but if you’re looking for a straightforward crime thriller movie this fall, you might want to check out Alex Cross.

ANTICIPATION: I most likely won’t see it in theaters, but I might check it out at some point.

Release Date: October 19th, 2012

Starring: Tyler Perry, Rachel Nichols, Matthew Fox, Jean Reno, Giancarlo Esposito, Edward Burns, John C. McGinley, Cicely Tyson, Chad Lindberg, Carmen Ejogo, Stephanie Jacobsen, Jessalyn Wanlim, Yara Shahidi, and Ingo Rademacher
Director: Rob Cohen
Writers: Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson

P.S. RIP Ernest Borgnine. You will be missed.